Author: Karakhanian Suren

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
The Jamestown Foundation
July 28 2005
ARMENIAN OPPOSITION CONSIDERS SUPPORTING CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
By Emil Danielyan
Thursday, July 28, 2005
The Armenian authorities have been given a major boost in their
standoff with the opposition with the Council of Europe’s effective
endorsement of their draft amendments to Armenia’s controversial
post-Soviet constitution. Experts from the Venice Commission have
declared that the amendments’ passage at a referendum expected this
November would contribute significantly to the country’s
democratization and advance its European integration.
The move created a serious dilemma for the Armenian opposition, which
had hoped to use the vote for another attempt to depose President
Robert Kocharian. It also caused a rift between moderate and more
radical opposition groups — another welcome development for the
ruling regime.
Reform of the constitution, criticized for giving the president of
the republic disproportionate powers, was one of the conditions for
Armenia’s accession to the Council of Europe in January 2001.
Kocharian’s first attempt to expedite it ended in failure when his
package of amendments did not win sufficient popular support at a
referendum in May 2003. Kocharian and his three-party governing
coalition have since been revising that package to make it more
acceptable to the domestic public and the Council of Europe.
They avoided making major changes in the constitutional draft until
facing strong criticism and warnings from the Venice Commission as
well as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Strasbourg-based
pan-European body in June. Armenian officials pledged to further
curtail the sweeping presidential powers before sending a revised
draft to Strasbourg on July 7. The Venice Commission said in a July
22 report that Yerevan has honored those commitments, concluding that
the final version of the proposed constitutional changes constitutes
“a good basis for ensuring the compliance of the Armenian
Constitution with the European standards in the fields of respect for
human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.” The commission
expressed hope that the opposition will be “mature” enough to help
the authorities enact those changes.
But Armenia’s largest opposition group, the Artarutiun (Justice)
alliance, is clearly unhappy with the latest draft and is demanding
additional changes. The first and foremost of them relates to the
formation of the government. The authorities have agreed to strip the
Armenian president of his discretionary right to sack the prime
minister and his cabinet. Only the parliament would have such
authority in the future. But opposition leaders say this change would
be nullified by another draft amendment that empowers the president
to dissolve the National Assembly if it twice rejects his prime
ministerial nominees.
Artarutiun also wants serious limitations on the presidential
authority to appoint and sack virtually all judges as well as a
constitutional provision mandating direct elections of Yerevan’s
mayor, who is currently named by Kocharian. The latter is only
prepared to allow the mayor’s appointment by an elected municipal
council.
The opposition demands have already been dismissed as “ridiculous” by
Tigran Torosian, the deputy parliament speaker and a senior
representative of the ruling coalition. Torosian warned on July 22
that Artarutiun will commit “political suicide” if it campaigns
against the reform. Indeed, the opposition bloc now risks finding
itself at loggerheads with the Council of Europe and perhaps major
European governments that hold sway in the organization.
Hanrapetutiun (Republic), the most radical of nine parties aligned in
Artarutiun, has made it clear that it will not support the reform
under any circumstances.. The party, led by the firebrand former
prime minister Aram Sarkisian, has publicly attacked its opposition
allies for taking a more conciliatory approach.
There is clearly little the opposition can gain in return from
endorsing the reform and somehow legitimizing a regime repeatedly
criticized by the West for falsifying elections and abusing human
rights. An amended constitution is unlikely to have any bearing on
the root cause of Armenia’s problems: chronic vote rigging. The
Council of Europe, however, continues to put the emphasis on the
passage of new laws rather than the enforcement of the existing ones
that already provide for free and fair elections. No wonder that
Armenia is now hardly more democratic than it was before joining the
organization.
Opposition support is essential for the success of the constitutional
reform. To pass, the constitutional amendments have to be approved by
a majority of referendum participants that make up at least one-third
of Armenia’s 2.4 million eligible voters. Clearing that threshold
requires a high degree of political consensus that is currently
absent. Besides, many Armenians seem apathetic to the issue. A recent
opinion poll found that less than one-third of Yerevan residents
would likely take part in the constitutional referendum if it were
held now.
Some local observers believe that the only way for the authorities to
ensure a desired outcome of the referendum is to falsify its results.
And this is what opposition leaders seem to be banking on as they
prepare for another bid to bring the recent wave of ex-Soviet
revolutions to Armenia. Their previous campaign of anti-Kocharian
demonstrations last year failed to attract strong public support and
was easily suppressed by security forces.
Defense Minister Serge Sarkisian, Kocharian’s most likely successor,
indicated on July 24 that the regime is ready to go as far as to
order troops into the streets of Yerevan to hold off another
opposition challenge. “Who is their Hercules who will come and crack
my head and sit in my chair?” he asked members of a pro-government
youth organization. “How do they imagine cracking Kocharian’s head
and occupying his post?”
(Report by a Venice Commission working group on Armenia, July 22;
Haykakan Zhamanak, July 26; Aravot, July 26; RFE/RL Armenia Report,
July 4, 22)

RIA Novosti, Russia
July 28 2005
Georgian opposition blames government for attack on Bush
16:55 | 28/ 07/ 2005

TBILISI, July 28 (RIA Novosti, Marina Kvaratskhelia) – The May 10
attempted attack on U.S. President George W. Bush in Tbilisi was
masterminded by the Georgian special services, said Shalva
Natelashvili, leader of the opposition Georgian Labor Party.
“Having analyzed the information I have received, I would like to
claim that the May 10 terrorist attack on Bush was perpetrated by
Saakashvili’s special services to save his ruined image and
dictatorship,” Natelashvili said Thursday. “Saakashvili wants his
name to be used with that of the U.S. president for the sake of his
image of a fighter for democracy and a victim of terrorism.”
The opposition leader said Vladimir Arutyunyan, suspected of the
grenade attack, was a Georgian secret agent and was provided with
weapons.
Natelashvili said Georgian investigators should be estranged from the
investigation, which should be conducted by the FBI, while Arutyunyan
should be extradited to the United States.
Charges of terrorism were brought against Arutyunyan, 27, an ethnic
Armenian suspected of the attack on the U.S. and Georgian presidents,
on July 26.
He was also accused of the illicit purchase, possesion, making and
transport of ammunition and explosives and aggravated killing.
Arutyunyan, who had thrown a grenade during Bush’s speech on
Tbilisi’s Freedom Square, was detained on July 20 during a special
operation in a Tbilisi suburb after he shot and killed the head of
the Georgian anti-terrorist center. He is facing life imprisonment.

I-Newswire.com (press release)
July 28 2005
Armenia joins global campaign to stop violence against children
UNICEF, Council of Europe and representatives of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Labor and Social Issues and State Police
called today for immediate action to put an end to violence against
children.
(I-Newswire) – `In Armenia we need to give the issue of violence
against children in homes, schools and other places in their
community the visibility and public attention this deserves,’ Sheldon
Yett, UNICEF Representative in Armenia said, addressing a round table
organized on the heels of the Regional Consultations on Violence
Against Children held in Ljubljana on 5-7 July 2005. `It is essential
that polices and procedures are in place to help prevent violence
against children, support child victims and strengthen reporting,
referral and response mechanisms.’
Studies in many countries have repeatedly shown that victims of
physical abuse during childhood have an increased risk of becoming
violent offenders themselves.
`Violence against children can occur everywhere, in every family and
in every society. In Armenia, as in almost all countries, it is
often a hidden problem that is vastly under-reported,’ Yett said
A 2003 UNICEF Armenia survey found that poor living conditions,
unemployment and the psychological stress of poverty had resulted in
an increase in the number of cases of abuse and neglect not only in
the family but also in schools and children’s institutions.
The study revealed that in many families slapping and beating are
perceived as a `means of upbringing’. In many children’s institutions
as well as in schools corporal punishment is still a common practice.

The Ljubljana conference was hosted by the Government of Slovenia
and organized in close consultation with UNICEF, WHO the Council of
Europe, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the
NGO Advisory Panel on the UN Study on Violence Against Children. The
consultation is one of nine worldwide that will feed into a major
study mandated by the UN General Assembly on Violence Against
Children.
Representatives of 40 countries as well as 24 child delegates
participating in the Regional Consultations in Ljubljana adopted a
final document called `Ljubljana Commitment’. By adopting this
document, the Government of Armenia and other countries in the region
pledged to take immediate steps to tackle the problem of violence
against children in their respective countries and to adopt measures
to prevent such cases from happening in future.
For more information, please contact:
Emil Sahakyan, UNICEF Armenia, [email protected]

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
The Jamestown Foundation
July 27 2005
UKRAINE IN QUEST FOR IRANIAN GAS
By Vladimir Socor
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Secretary, Petro
Poroshenko, and Naftohaz Ukrainy chairman Oleksiy Ivchenko paid
little-noted visits to Iran on July 14 and July 24-25, respectively.
The visits in quick succession evidenced Kyiv’s sense of urgency
about reducing its dependence on Russian energy supplies, as well as
its medium-term ambition to increase Ukraine’s role as an energy
transit corridor to European Union countries.
Poroshenko and Ivchenko held talks with Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan
Namdar-Zanganeh and Deputy Oil Minister Hadi Nezhad-Hoseyinian.
Poroshenko was also received by Iran’s newly elected President Mahmud
Ahmadinejad. Poroshenko and Ivchenko recalled that President Viktor
Yushchenko had in 2000, while prime minister, initiated discussions
with Iran for energy supplies to Ukraine. Prime Minister Yulia
Tymoshenko has also spoken more than once recently in favor of
discussions with Iran for oil and gas.
The Tehran meetings discussed options for delivery of Iranian natural
gas to Ukraine and farther afield into Europe. Three possible transit
routes were considered: a)
Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Russia-Ukraine-Europe; b)
Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Black Sea-Ukraine-Europe; and c)
Iran-Turkey-Black Sea-Ukraine-Europe.
Under any of these versions, Iran would finance the pipeline
construction on its own territory. Presumably, this would enable the
countries participating in such a project to steer clear of violating
the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act of the United States, which penalizes
any sizeable foreign investment in energy projects on Iran’s
territory.
It was agreed during these meetings to form expert groups, exchange
information on feasibility of projects, identify participant
companies and the shape of a possible consortium, select a transit
route, make preliminary calculations on investments, determine
volumes of gas for delivery to Ukraine and EU countries, and set
prices for the amortization period.
A six-party meeting among the aforementioned countries has been
scheduled for September. Meanwhile, Ukraine proposes moving ahead
bilaterally with Iran to select a transit route. Ukraine and Iran can
then invite other countries to participate, depending on the choice
of route.
Each of the three options poses daunting problems. The route out of
Iran through Armenia will almost certainly be opposed by Gazprom. The
Russian company will defend its position in Ukraine, and has ample
means to pressure Armenia to act as a buffer, rather than as a
conduit for competing gas. Moreover, it is Gazprom policy at present
to restrict access of Iranian gas in the South Caucasus as well. At
Moscow’s insistence, the Iran-Armenia gas supply pipeline now under
construction will have a small diameter, so as to keep its throughput
capacity to a minimum.
The route out of Iran through Turkey seems less subject to Russian or
other strong-arm political interference. Moreover, an Iran-Turkey gas
pipeline already exists, and is being underutilized because the
Turkish gas market is oversubscribed. However, laying a pipeline
across mountainous Anatolia to the Black Sea coast, and then a seabed
pipeline to Crimea, is a proposition that investors will receive with
great caution. Construction of a large-capacity transit pipeline
through Ukraine will then be necessary, as there is no spare capacity
in existing pipelines.
Iranian gas is high-priced already at the country’s border, as
Armenia has learned. If inordinate transportation costs are added,
Iranian gas might price itself above Ukraine’s paying ability and out
of competition on European markets.
(Iran Daily, July 16; IranMania, July 17; Interfax-Ukraine, July 15,
25)

Iranian press 27 July 2005
Quotes package from BBC Monitoring Service – United Kingdom
Jul 27, 2005

The following is a selection of quotes from editorials and
commentaries published in 27 July 2005 editions of Iranian newspapers
available to BBC Monitoring at 0430 gmt.
London explosions
Resalat [conservative]: “The London explosions have provided enough
pretexts for Western government to show their anti-Islamic beliefsý
The roots of the development of terrorism should be sought in the
policies of the Western countries. Is the world any more secure now
than it was three years ago when America unilaterally attacked Iraq
and Afghanistan, pretending to combat terrorism?”
Khatami
Iran News [moderate]: “The mild-manner, reformist cleric whose
two-term presidency began with so much hope and promise is leaving
office with a mixed recordý the more than 20 million citizens who
twice voted him in office would expect nothing less than a frank
discussion and truth telling session as well as a demand for the
release of all journalists and intellectuals behind bars, especially
Akbar Ganji.”
Women
Mardom-Salari [moderate]: “It seems that in developing countries no
reasonable solution has been so far found to equally engage women in
political activitiesý This problem should be seriously dealt with. We
have to pavethe way in all fields for women to take part in all
cultural, economic, and political affairs.”
Recreation centre
Jomhuri-ye Eslami [hard-line pro-Khamene’i]: “It is said that the
Armenians in Iran are going to establish a recreation centre on Qeshm
Island for tourists and Armenians where they can enjoy themselves
without obeying Islamic principles and free from Iran’s restrictionsý
Marina Agency, headed by an Armenian lady, has got permission to carry
out the projectý A poisonous plot targeting Muslims can be smelled
from this plan, though it is said that the plan is for Armenians’
activities.”

The ‘simple gambler’ worth $9bn
Kirk Kerkorian backed ailing GM – and has come up trumps, writes Edward
Helmore
Sunday July 24, 2005
Observer
Few investors have the capacity to confound convention and get away with
it like Kirk Kerkorian. Last week, the legendary 88-year-old investor,
said to be America’s fourth richest man, was reported to have made $100
million in a little over a month on a highly counter-intuitive bet on
General Motors shares.
In early June, Kerkorian bought 18.9 million GM shares just as the
troubled carmaker’s stock was downgraded to junk. His surprise purchase
not only sparked rumours he might try to take over the firm (as he once
tried to take over Chrysler) but caused turmoil among hedge funds and
institutional investors who bet wrongly that the company’s shares would
fall. (One British fund, GLG, lost £500m. )
Kerkorian now owns 40.9 million shares, or 7.2 per cent, of GM stock,
making him the third-largest shareholder in the world’s biggest – and
sickest – carmaker. What he actually wants with GM is less clear. After
all, he once built up a supposedly passive stake in Chrysler before
launching a takeover bid. He is currently suing the combined
DaimlerChrysler arguing he was fooled in supporting the merger.
Many have tried and failed to understand Kerkorian’s business strategy.
But whether it’s carmakers, troubled airlines, film studios or Las Vegas
casinos, the ex-Mosquito pilot has a knack for buying low and selling
high. He’s an eccentric and inscrutable octogenarian with the energy of
someone one-third his age who has built himself an $8.9 billion fortune
from nothing.
And while he possesses some of the requisite accessories of a
billionaire – a Boeing 737 and 192 foot yacht, for instance – there is
nothing flashy about him. His office, located on a quiet Beverly Hills
side street, isn’t listed in the building directory and the nameplate of
his company -Tracinda, after his daughters Tracy and Linda – isn’t on
the door.
But even as owner of the legendary Hollywood studio, MGM, he still
watches the Oscars on TV and queues when he goes to the pictures in LA’s
Century City (he drives himself, in a Jeep Grand Cherokee). At dinners
at the famous Polo Lounge he always pays cash (he is said to carry
around a bundle of $10,000.) His only concession to vanity is a $150
haircut once a month.
A second-generation Armenian – his father came to America a century ago
– Kerkorian has been a generous benefactor of his ancestral home,
building roads and restoring an opera house. Armenians have tried to
name an avenue or airport after him. According to the country’s US
ambassador, Kerkorian does not want it.
Unlike similarly successful men such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates or
Steve Jobs, Kerkorian does not want to see his reflection in the popular
culture. He has bought and sold MGM film studios three times and has a
controlling stake in MGM Mirage, the Vegas casino giant, but has never
named a Las Vegas hotel casino after himself, the way his competitor
Steve Wynn just did.
Even in photographs, he says, you can tell which one is him, because
he’s got his mouth shut. Kerkorian says he is simply shy. His education
ended at 15 and he’s self-conscious that his conversation betrays it. ‘I
wish I could talk like Donald Trump or Steve Wynn,’ he says. ‘Hell, I’d
love it.’ Friends insist he’s a gambler at heart and doing deals is what
keeps him alive. ‘He’s a born gambler with a sixth sense for sniffing
out value,’ says friend and former Chrysler boss, Lee Iacocca.
What keeps him rich, Kerkorian told the LA Times in a rare interview
earlier this year, is doing deals. ‘You get a checklist and then you
just sort of ride herd on it.’ He makes his success sound like no more
than a happy accident. ‘I just lucked into things. I used to think that
if I made $50,000 I’d be the happiest guy in the world.’
In one apocryphal tale, Kerkorian summoned his banker at Bear, Stearns
to his house on a Sunday morning in mid-1990 and announced he wanted to
buy 22 million shares of Chrysler; his banker offered that Chrysler,
with billions in debt, looked like a poor bet and offered to prepare a
report on the firm. ‘I’d rather you wouldn’t,’ replied Kerkorian. So the
banker went to his boss, Alan ‘Ace’ Greenberg, who advised: ‘Don’t tell
Babe Ruth how to hold his bat.’ In two years, Chrysler’s value tripled.
There are echoes in Kerkorian’s story of Howard Hughes – they both flew
planes, owned airlines, Hollywood studios, Vegas hotels and casinos.
Kerkorian knew Hughes but only compares himself to him to illuminate his
own lack of achievement. ‘This guy broke real speed records. He designed
airplanes. He was a great engineer. He did huge things.’
Kerkorian was born in 1917, rumoured to have been an unwanted child. His
father lost their 1,000-acre raisin farm in the Depression and the
family ended up moving 20 times when he was a child because they
couldn’t pay the rent. Once asked what he’d learnt from his father’s
difficulties he said it was to not bet everything you have on one roll
of the dice.
At 13 he dropped out of a reform school, got a job in Sequoia National
Park and wanted to be a prize fighter – losing only four times in 33
bouts. But flying intervened when he was taken under the wing of
legendary aviator Florence Barnes, Hollywood’s first woman stunt pilot.
She put him up at her Happy Bottom clubhouse and in return for working
her fields, Kerkorian received flying lessons. He became an instructor
and then, during the Second World War, ferried Canadian-built RAF planes
to England.
But instead of hopping from Labrador to Greenland, thence to Iceland and
Scotland, Kerkorian risked flying the Mosquito bombers non-stop from
Labrador to Scotland. On one 1944 nonstop flight, Kerkorian broke the
old record of 8 hours and 56 minutes; on another, he ran out of fuel as
he was landing.
He bought his first transport plane for $60,000 in 1947. Figuring that
high rollers didn’t want to waste precious gambling time on a 10-hour
car trip, he used the plane to start a charter service between LA and
Vegas, which became Trans International Airlines.
Kerkorian sold that for $104m in 1969 and used the money to eventually
buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, open the International Hotel in Vegas, and set
about buying and selling virtually every big-name hotel in town over the
next three decades. Today, Kerkorian owns 11 casino-hotels on the strip
and accounts for 49 per cent of all the rooms.
What the one-time farm boy will do next is open to question. He is a man
who bores quickly. He’s had all the luxuries money can buy. As for every
gambler, all the promise in the world is in the next throw, or in his
case the next deal. He used to stay at the tables until everything was
gone but soon realised the strategy didn’t pay off. So he has learnt to
walk away when he has reached his pre-ordained limit. But even with
limits, he says, ‘I’m a gambler at heart. That’s my life.’
Profile
Name Kerkor Kerkorian
Born 6 June 1917, Fresno, California
Family Two daughters
Career 1947, founds Trans International Airlines, running charters from
California to Las Vegas; 1962, buys 80 acres of land in Las Vegas, rents
it to developers to build Caesar’s Palace; 1967, builds International
Hotel, then largest in the world, in Las Vegas; 1973, buys MGM studios,
builds first MGM Grand Hotel (later destroyed); 1986 sells MGM to Ted
Turner; 1993 builds new MGM Grand
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Feature – Ali Babacan: Turkey’s European face
By Myria Antoniadou
Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
July 17 2005
HIS appointment took much longer than was expected. It was said the
various forces within Turkey were trying to impose their own man for
the country’s top EU-related job.
Finally, under the pressure for Ankara to show it was on track despite
growing anti-Turkish public sentiment and frustration at the Commission
for the delay, Prime Minister Erdogan imposed his will: Ali Babacan,
the 38-year-old US trained Finance Minister and founding member of
the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was also appointed
chief negotiator in the talks with the EU on June 3.
This week, Babacan was in Brussels for acquaintance meetings with some
Commissioners and his first public appearance, before the European
Parliament. What was obvious was that Babacan still has a long way to
go until he learns the ins and outs of the EU, and, more importantly,
how to handle them.
One issue many agree on is that the young Turkish Finance Minister,
who did his Master’s in Business Management on a US Fulbright
scholarship, is clever and a very hard worker. He is the neo-liberal or
‘anglo-saxon’ face of Turkey.
After his studies, he stayed on in the US doing financial consulting to
top executives of major banks and managing projects. In 1994 he became
chairman of his family’s textile business, being the first to introduce
wholesale mail order in this area, while at the same time he was chief
advisor to Ankara’s mayor securing financing for important projects.
Babacan also managed relations with the World Bank and is widely
respected as the driving force behind market reforms that have won
billions of dollars in International Monetary Fund support, and helped
bring the country out of deep financial crisis.
However, what helped him become popular in Turkey may backfire on
him on the EU level. Before the European Parliament Foreign Affairs
Committee on Tuesday, he spent the large part of his 30-minute speech
on Turkey’s economy. Babacan painted a rosy picture of the years
ahead, in response to the concerns that Turkey’s accession would be
a financial burden to Europe and would signal an influx of immigrants.
“He tried convincing us that if we do not all invest in Turkey,
we are set to lose, but did not respond to the political concerns,”
one person commented. MEPs, who are politicians and therefore do
not adopt the milder stance of diplomats or commission officials,
have expressed disappointment because in their two-hour exchange of
views he did not really reply to their questions.
Quite a few members of the Foreign Relations Committee, the Mail
has learned, believe that not only was he evasive, but he lingered
in his replies. Those from the Christian Democrat (EPP-ED) group,
which is divided over Turkey’s accession, were particularly critical,
showing the tough times ahead for Ankara’s officials.
Cypriot member of the Committee and former foreign minister, Ioannis
Kasoulides, told the Sunday Mail Babacan was very evasive and caused
frustration among some members. He noted the Turkish negotiator
did not reply to concrete political questions with precision and in
substance, especially on the need for Turkey to recognise Cyprus,
address the Armenian question and safeguard freedoms and rights of
religious minorities.
On Cyprus and the Armenian issue, Babacan restricted himself to
recalling statements made by the Turkish Premier and the Foreign
Minister.
In addition, he called for “care” in public statements because the
people of Turkey “can be offended”, something which did not go down
well in Brussels. MEPs from new member states also rejected his claims
that the EU is being more strict with Turkey.
These criticisms were raised in writing by Dr Renata Sommers, MEP
for Germany’s Christian Democrat party (CDU), expected to win the
upcoming elections. In a press release, she expressed dismay with
Babacan’s rejection of Turkey being offered a privileged partnership,
an issue expected to be raised quite often in the months ahead.
To some extent, Babacan maintains the general Turkish attitude of
not really understanding the long and difficult process beginning
in October. Ankara, as some eurocrats and diplomats say, does not
realise there is nothing much to negotiate on, as it is an exercise
of determining the changes to be made for Turkey to align with EU
rules and regulations.
However, it seems the soft-spoken Turkish official had a more timid
stance in his meetings with Commissioners, to the extent that he
appeared slightly nervous, according to EU sources. Babacan came
across as aware of the difficulties ahead and the negative climate
towards Turkish accession in some quarters, and assured he would work
hard to keep his country on track.
>>From October 3 onwards, this young Turkish official, of conservative
Muslim background, will be Turkey’s European face and will come
under much scrutiny, not only in his country, but in 25 states across
the continent.

AZG Armenian Daily #128, 13/07/2005

Internet
HACKERS TO DAMAGE SERVER OF
In the evening of July 8, hackers damaged the server of
website of Investigative Journalists. The damagers were apparently
professionals; their location was not tracked down so far. The server
of the site is located in the United States. The website begs readers’
pardon. The site will be functioning in a few days.
Editorial staff of online weekly
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1plus
| 12:24:04 | 09-07-2005 | Politics |
MAYOR OF YEREVAN SHOULD BE ELECTED
On the demand of the Venice Commission the RA authorities resigned
themselves to the fact that the Mayor of Yerevan should be elected.
Nevertheless they have left a loophole: the parliamentary majority will
spare no effort to make the elections not indirect, that is to say by the
elected community council.
`Thus the elected Mayor will be a marionette. About 75 members of the
community council will elect the Mayor. The 70 people, who elect the Mayor
by order of the authorities, will demand lands, money and business from
him’, independent deputy Manuk Gasparyan stated in a conversation with our
reporter. `In this way it would be better to leave the Mayor be elected’, he
added. To note, he is going to run for the post.
The parliamentary opposition, which is supposed to share the opinion of the
leadership after returning from Strasbourg, is against the election of the
Mayor by the community council. Justice faction member Shavarsh Kocharyan
considers that the Mayor should be elected by people. `As a matter of fact
the European Charter on Local Self-Government does not exclude election by
the community council; however a united logic should function in the
country: either the Mayor is elected by the community council (like in many
European states) or on the contrary. Presently we want to implement a double
logic. It does not beneath any criticism. Why Yerevan should differ from any
other community? The Venice Commission is content, since such elections meet
the commitments of the European Charter. They seem not to be interest in the
result,’ he says.
RPA leader Galust Sahakyan is convinced that a community council will
function in Yerevan and it will elect one of its members the Mayor by secret
vote. In his words, such mechanism functioned in 1990-1995 and no problems
emerged.
Opinions of the members of People’s deputy group differ. Some think that the
Mayor should be elected directly, the others think that he should be elected
by the community council. Group member Mkrtich Minasyan considers that the
Mayor should be elected by the people. He notes that if elected by the
community council he will account only to the council. `If we want a strong
Mayor, he should be elected directly and be responsible for the people In
this case he will have more power and authority’, he resumed.
Diana Markosyan
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1plus
| 20:04:46 | 08-07-2005 | Official |
POWER IS NOT IN SIZE
The President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic referred to the announcement
of the OSCE PA President special representative of the NKR conflict Goran
Lenmarker in which he said he was against the recognition of the
independence of the NKR, saying the following, «I must say it clearly – we
cannot allow the creation of several small republics in the region. There
must be three powerful republics which must be treated with respect».
Arkadi Ghoukasyan has said, `This is a political, not a judicial approach.
Recognizing the Southern Caucasus region part of Europe Mr. Lenmarker sees
danger in the recognition of small republics. Following this logics, the
Europeans must start a combat against Monaco or Luxemburg.
I think the power of the country has nothing to do with its size. Only the
ability of the nation to be responsible for its fate, the level of
organization and the correspondence of the ideology to the preset stage of
civilization can be real criteria. Nagorno Karabakh corresponds to those
criteria’.